5 tips to improve your social media in 2020

Posted: 18/02/2020

The last decade has been remarkable for social media. We were introduced to Instagram, Snapchat, and TikTok. Influencers became celebrities and even our grannies got on Facebook. As social media is becoming more and more important, we want to start off the new year by giving you 5 tips to survive the social jungle in 2020.

1. Group up on Facebook and Instagram

As humans are group animals, we seek people with the same interests to share our passions. On Facebook, you can make a group in just a couple of clicks and link this to your Facebook page. Once your customers join the group, they’ll feel exclusive and part of the community. Not only can you post tips & tricks or tutorials, but your customers can also share their stories. This free and exclusive content does not only promote your product or service but is also a strong PR-tool.

Instagram also noticed that smaller and more intimate groups are more and more relevant in 2020. Instagram made the “close friends” feature where you can select your most important followers and share exclusive content with them. Another way to have more privacy is the chat feature in Instagram Story. With this feature, you can chat with a select group of people who are interested in the subject you want to talk about.

2. Use WhatsApp or Messenger to stay in touch with your customer

In 2020, who is calling anymore? People use different messaging apps like Messenger and WhatsApp to communicate with friends and relatives every day. Why not merge it into your customer care service? It’s easy to find for your client, and it’s a free form of communication. They do expect that you respond fast, preferably within 3 hours. WhatsApp also developed a Business-app to chat with customers. The app comes with cool features like a catalog to show your products and services, automatic replies, and an intelligent sorting system to categorize your clients.

On Messenger, you even have some standard questions and answers to have a quick chat with your customer. But you can make this more accessible by installing a chatbot which answers to the FAQ. In Messenger, you can easily integrate such a Chatbot with Chatfuel.com or other free platforms. The chatbot reacts 24/7, which will satisfy the customer more by solving its problem instantly. Messenger also has an 80% click-through rate, this can offer a lot of potential for your business.

3. Influencer marketing remains but shifts to micro-influencers

We cannot deny that influencers had a big impact on how the social media scene has changed the past years. Companies use big names like Selena Gomez or PewDiePie to market their products. Influencer marketing was a big business but some influencers became sell-outs who only posted sponsored content. Followers started to lose touch with the influencer because they weren’t staying true to who they were. Influencers were losing followers and started to buy likes and followers to remain the best. Instagram reacted by hiding followers so that the like-count would not be the focus of their content.

In the meantime, followers again started looking for someone who had the same interests or style as they had. But instead of big influencers, they looked for someone with who they could have a personal connection. Someone they could reach for advice or inspiration. Because followers felt more connected with the person behind the account, they were more likely to take their advice. A new kind of influencers was born, the micro-influencer or nano-influencer.

For a company, a nano-influencer is more interesting as they have more interaction, reach, and authenticity towards its followers. It’s also easier to target your audience since they have 25K or fewer followers. Which also means that they cost you a lot less. It does not suffice anymore to use the influencer as a billboard. To build a relationship with the influencer and its followers, it’s better to start a partnership. This long-term partnership will make an ambassador of the influencer which will gain you a lot more authenticity than just a one-time sponsored post.

Photo by Adam Jang on Unsplash

4. The long-form video will dominate social media

Video continues to develop at a rapid pace. In the past few years, we already learned that social media algorithms rank a native video higher than a video that was first posted on another platform. Followers watch a video most of the time without any sound. And customers are more likely to remember your message if they watch it through a video. In 2020 the long-form video will dominate social media. The story and message will be more and more important. If your message is not clear or interesting in the first few seconds, the viewer will click on another video. With a long-form video, you can also create a relationship and community with your customers. You can make a series out of your long-form videos to make people return to watch your next videos.

For a look behind the scenes or tutorials, live video is advancing too. Platforms like Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and LinkedIn offer a live function already. It’s an easy tool to engage with your audience since they can immediately interact with you. Not only by commenting on the video but on some platforms you can add someone to your live video. In a live video, there’s a lot of authenticities because you can’t cut or undo things, which gives you or your brand more trustworthy personality.

The success of video is also seen in the upcoming social media platform TikTok. A video-only platform with funny challenges and lip-sync video’s mainly seen by users between 6-24 years old. This audience doesn’t like advertisements on social media and they use an ad-blocker to get rid of it. Although TikTok now offers advertising space, it’s most likely to build reach and a community rather than to sell products. As a brand, you could invest in a TikTok influencer marketing campaign with a hashtag. This hashtag will give you a lot of user-generated content in return, and therefore also more authenticity.

Photo by Noiseporn on Unsplash

5. Stimulate engagement with stories

At the beginning of the last decade, we got introduced to Snapchat, which introduced stories and AR face filters to the world. In 2016 Instagram also added the story idea to its platform. Both platforms had massive success with this feature, so Facebook, WhatsApp, and YouTube jumped in a little later.

Today, over 500 million people use IG stories every day. Not only is it a fast way to communicate with your followers, but it is also very personal as people can only reply via direct message. With engaging elements such as polls or questions, you can interact with your followers. Instagram continues to add new story features for more engagement and a better way to build your community. It’s possible to advertise on stories but don’t make a hard-selling advertisement. Use a good visual with vibrant colors, an appealing picture, and a “swipe up to go to website” instead. This feature, like many others, will be measured in the statistics later. The insights give you a clear view of what happened with your story and allow you to measure different KPI’s.

On Facebook, stories are becoming more and more important to share day-to-day content. As organic reach is low in the newsfeed, stories appear on top of the page. This position gives your story extra exposure and you don’t need to invest money in Facebook advertising. You can use the same content you posted on your Instagram story and share it directly on your Facebook story, but don’t make it too overwhelming. Use the other AR features instead and different kinds of fonts to differentiate.

Do you want to take your socials to the next level in 2020?Book a free consultancy session with one of our experts to explore the possibilities for your business.